Aspect Ratio of widescreen TV's

[advido]

....I've just purchased a Hannspree Xv 37 inch TV and find that 'round is not round'.... !
The only correct screen aspect ratio where round is round and people look correct and not streched out wide - making them look short and squatty and fat in the face is the NORMAL (4:3) setting.
This however gives me a 3 inch black bar at the left and right of my screen and therefor defeats the reason to buy a widescreen television....
The PANORAMA mode is 'supposed' to keep the centre of the screen normal and stretch only the outer sides of the picture - thereby under 'most' circumstances will be hardly noticeable. The centre will look normal...This is what was on my previous CRT - 32inch widescreen JVC television and it worked very well...
If most programs (even the news) are now being broadcast in widescreen mode the 'NORMAL' should be widescreen with the correct aspect ratios and not a stretched 4:3 ratio.
Is my Hannspree 37 TV faulty or do other makes do this.. or are some 'panorama' setting on other maker sets more like my old JVC ???
I can't live with this and if this is 'normal' - i'll return the Hannspree and go back to my JVC.

ps. I work as a graphic designer and if I put out a moon or other round object in a piece of work and it got printed and looked oval my customers would go 'up the wall'.... why is this round problem (if it is the norm) not sorted OR do people simply not notice that the aspect ratio is not correct ???

 

[son_t]

From: http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/34579/94119.html

Panorama (a.k.a. Theater or Natural): A combination of stretching and zooming to fill the screen. Manufacturers use different approaches to present this mode. Some TVs stretch the sides of the image more than the middle, so most people look normal, and some might crop just a little off the sides and not stretch as much.

Doesn't look like the Hannspree can do this mode...

BTW Most TV sets can do widescreen switching automatically (so from 4:3 to 16:9 and back) but not to the 'Panorama' mode - which is manual...

 

[Andy98765]

What source are you using.

SKY
Freeview
Cable

 

[advido]

using SKY

(here's the description from the user manual - the PANORAMA mode clearly shows that the centre of the screen shows round and it distorts the outer parts left and right that 'should' give a hardly noticeable stretch whilst keeping the centre part of the screen unchanged)

What source are you using.

SKY
Freeview
Cable

 

[Andy98765]

Have you told your SKY box to output 16:9 or is it still set to the default 4:3.

 

[advido]

SKY System Setup :- screen ratio is set to 16:9

..this is what it is now on although i've tweeked (contrast : high/med/low and Scart : on/off and Video out : PAL /RGB).

What should be the correct setting(s) for SKY ???

It's not just this aspect Ratio problem...
To me , compared to my old CRT set the screen looks like I'm looking throught a net curtain - no fine detail... a very 'water colour' painting effect...
People (as well as being distorted) have a pastel look to them - almost 'cartoony'.... If this is the future of viewing then i'm not ready for it... i'll keep the CRT and get my money back...

Is this just because I purchased a 'cheapie' Hannspree (£495-00 for a 37 inch) OR is this fairly typical of what I'd get (picture quality) from a set in any price range ?
I was going to spend another £150 and get a Toshiba 37WLT66a but so many people on here gave the Hannspree a 'rave comment' and that it was super value for money that I decided to save the money...

The image quality 'overall' is vastly lacking to the picture quality I have become accustomed to over the last 40 years of CRT viewing...(other things show up :- like ghosting / slow update /moire patterns....None of this on a CRT screen....

Is it worth pursuing a more expensive model or is this 'digital -as we know it - there is no going back'....???

Overall - VERY DISAPPOINTED with LCD....

Comments welcome from you experienced guys on here...

What do I do ? - What would you do ??

Have you told your SKY box to output 16:9 or is it still set to the default 4:3.

 

[son_t]

What are you talking about - the PQ from Sky? Or DVD or what?

You might be suffering from the upscaling of SD images for an HD set... called being able to see digital artifacts plus the poor ability of the set to deal with SD pictures... All LCD sets suffer from this to some extent.

You need to play with the contrast, brightness, etc settings to get this to an acceptable state and sit further away from the set...

Use a better scart cable and put the box into RGB mode to will help.

 

[Andy98765]

Although there has been good reviews of the Hanspree TV's on this forum to me if I went shopping to get a TV and the choice was a ADSA 42" TV by some name I had never heard of or go for a Tosh, Sony, Samsung etc I would go for the branded makes everytime. I have an old Tosh 37WLT58 (LCD) and its quality of picture from Freeview (built-in), SKY+, DVD and media centre are all excellent and I have ZERO compliants. But I must add that everything is connected up with quality cables so as to leave no margin of error, example for the SKY+ connection I use a QED SCART cable which used to be on my old Philips CRT. Prior to changing to the QED the picture used to be slightly grainy, colours slightly washed out, after the change the picture just jumped into life, it was sharp, colours where better etc etc.
Since then I have learned you get what you pay for.

 

[son_t]

Since then I have learned you get what you pay for.

Doesn't work everytime. You can pay lots of money for a HD LCD TV set but the SD PQ might still be crap...

 

[neilmcl]

Surely you should have it set the TV to FULL to properly show widescreen signals? Normal mode is for showing 4:3 broadcasts in their OAR.